Punjab SIT summons Sukhbir Badal in 2015 Kotkapura firing incident
Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Aug, 2022 10:30 AM
Chandigarh, Aug 25 (IANS) In a major political development, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the 2015 Kotkapura firing case following sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib has summoned then former Deputy Chief Minister and current Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal in Chandigarh on August 30.
The SIT led by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) L.K. Yadav, earlier questioned former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini.
However, SAD leaders denied that Badal, who was the home minister of Punjab in 2015, has been summoned for questioning.
Badal has been asked to appear at the Punjab Police Officers Institute in Sector 32 in Chandigarh at 10.30 a.m.
Saini was removed from the top police post by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in 2015 following incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and subsequent violence in the state in which the police force was accused of excesses that left two people dead.
Justice Ranjit Singh (retd), who headed the commission appointed by the previous Congress government into the alleged incidents of sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and the subsequent police firing on protesters, has placed the then Chief Minister, the SAD patriarch, and then DGP Saini in dock.
Also, he castigated the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda, whose chief and self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is currently serving a 20-year jail sentence for raping two of his disciples and a life term for a journalist's killing, for the incident of sacrilege.
Justice Singh made these comments in January on the release of his 423-page book 'The Sacrilege' based on his inquiry when he was heading the government set up commission.
"Inference on the basis of material and evidence is against both then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and then Director General of Police (DGP) Saini for not playing active role (with the subsequent police firing on protesters after the sacrilege incident)," Justice Singh had told IANS at the book launch here.
The incident of sacrilege took place in Behbal Kalan village of Faridkot district and the subsequent police firing on protesters that claimed two lives was raked up by the Congress against the SAD-BJP combine government in the 2017 assembly polls.
Even in 2022 polls, the incidents continued to rock the state's political sphere as the successive governments are under fire for failing to deliver justice in the cases.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on April 9, 2021, quashed the previous police SIT report that gave a clean chit to the Badals and directed the state government to set up a new team.
The high court had not only quashed the probe but also raised doubts over the methods and ordered reconstitution of the SIT probing the case without IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who is now an AAP legislator.
Following the court directive, the then Congress government led by Captain Amarinder Singh constituted another SIT on May 7 to probe the incident.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday carried out his first Cabinet expansion by inducting five legislators, including second-time MLA Aman Arora, into his council of ministers. The expansion came in less than four months of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sweeping to victory in the Assembly elections by winning 92 seats of the 117 seats.
The police have so far managed to nab four of the accused, including one woman, who have been identified as Gurjant Singh (31), Navjot Singh (30), Satpal Singh (28) and Gurpreet Kaur (30).
The ambidextrous sharpshooter, identified as Ankit alias Chhota, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, was most desperate to commit the crime."He fired simultaneously from two pistols in his two hands," H.G.S. Dhaliwal, Special Commissioner (Special Cell), said during a media briefing.
With this the two-and-half year old, three-party Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress government experiment has collapsed, barely hours after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari ordered a floor test late on Tuesday night.
In a daze the victim handed over her gold locket and a pair of golden tops to the accused. When she regained her senses she called the police. Based on her complaint, the police registered a case under sections 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
In regulatory filing, Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of the Reliance group, said the Board of Directors at its meeting held on Monday "approved the appointment of Akash Ambani, Non-executive Director, as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company".
